The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 85 — Kobes should be for everybody

Get this right, Nike. Plz.

Aug 14, 2020

Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for stopping by this morning. I appreciate y’all.

The thread was SO fun! I’m already thinking of ways to advance it and make it a better platform for us, so I hope y’all will keep rocking with me on that over the next few weeks! Let’s have a good time!

With that out the way, let’s get right to it!

Doing the right thing is easy

(Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash)

It’s official. Nike is bringing back Kobe Bryant’s signature kicks in an even bigger way than originally anticipated.

They aren’t just doing Mamba Day. They’re doing Mamba week. From August 23 to 29, they’ll be releasing five pairs of Kobe Protro 5’s along with a Lakers Black Mamba 8/24 jersey.

Here’s a look.

For the Protro 5 releases, we’ve got the Big Stage colorway coming on the 23rd, Lakers colorway dropping on the 24th and the EYBL colorway dropping on the 29th as previously leaked.
The “What if” Protro pack with two more versions from Undefeated is dropping on August 27.

It’s great that Kobe’s are back. There is a worry, though.

Nike is already touting this drop as “limited” — specifically with the 8/24 jersey. The prevailing belief with the Protro 5’s being released is that they’ll also have a limited run, though, that hasn’t been expressly said. However, given the Undefeated collab and the special colorways dropping you can bet good money that they’ll be hyped.

But here’s the problem. Limiting any of this is a mistake. Anything that Nike releases from Kobe Bryant’s line or career should flood the market.

A limited run of these things is a bad look for everyone.

By dropping anything Kobe related as a limited edition item, Nike is actively encouraging resellers to price gouge for profit off of items related to a man’s death. That’s just flat out gross.
That problem is two-fold. While they’re actively encouraging resellers to gobble up stock and sell, they’re also making it much harder for actual Kobe fans to get his gear.

If what we’ve heard rings true, this is the opposite of what Nike wants to happen. They reportedly want his fans to cop up, per ESPN’s Nick DePaula.

“Nike will continue to release Kobe Protro shoes, allowing the millions of fans he inspired around the world to keep Bryant’s legacy going. Nike will also continue to work with the NBA to release limited quantities of Bryant’s iconic Los Angeles Lakers jersey.”

They’re also donating the profits to Bryant’s merchandise sales to the Mamba League as well as the Mamba and Mambacita foundation. That’s a really good thing.

Actions speak louder than words, though. And, right now, a limited drop would send the message that the hype machine is more important this man’s legacy. And that’s an extremely bad look.

It doesn’t have to happen this way. Hopefully it doesn’t. Nike can still do the right thing. Let’s just hope they do.

The fakes still sellin’

(Photo by Viacheslav Bublyk on Unsplash)

The fake sneaker business is still booming in the middle of a pandemic.

Look no further than the counterfeit sneaker bust from earlier this week down in Dallas for proof.

Counterfeit kicks valued at $4.3 million were seized earlier this week by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The shipment was headed to Mexico.

The joints look mad fake, too.

Yes, that number is absolutely staggering. But the details of the bust are what get you.

The shipment was made up of 60 boxes coming from Hong Kong and declared as “Ball Golf” items, which is hilarious in itself.
The packages contained more than 1,800 fake pairs (!!!!) of Dior Jordan 1s among scores of other fake shoes. Good Lord.

Let’s keep it a buck — there have been fake Dior 1’s on the street since the last time we were allowed outside. They’ve been around.

It’s honestly surprising it took this long to have a slightly major Dior Jordan 1 bust. Counterfeiting is big business. It's worth more than half a billion, per Quartz. People make a lot of money suckering folks. We’ll probably see more of these down the road.

In the meantime, the homie you know that copped them? Yeah, let them know they should probably double check them joints.

Capturing the moment 101

Adidas is always fantastic when it comes to marketing their big drops.

They hit it out of the park with Beyonce and Ivy Park (pun very much so intended). They were just as fantastic with the Yeezy Quantum drop starting in Kanye West’s hometown of Chicago.

It’s very rare, though, that we see an excellent marketing scheme from them related to some of their general release product — particularly when it comes to sports.

But they did just that with Damian Lillard’s basketball shoe earlier this week. After his big 61 point game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, Adidas cut the price on every Dame 6 down to $61 matching his point total.

Jacques Slade @kustoo

👀 @adidasHoops dropped the price on the Dame 6 to $61 to celebrate @Dame_Lillard 61 point game last night. #DameTime

Lillard created a “where were you when this happened?” point in time with his game against the Mavericks. Adidas took that attention he had in that moment and flipped it to moving merch at a nearly 50% discounted rate.

This was absolutely brilliant way to capture a very unique moment in time that folks won’t forget anytime soon. Salute to Adidas for recognizing it.

These Dunks are HEAT — literally

Alright, I have no idea how the science on these joints work. But the Civilist x Nike SB Thermal Dunks are the coolest thing ever.

The fabric on these joints literally changes when it’s exposed to heat. Dog, look at this.

Nice Kicks @nicekicks

The upcoming Civilist x Nike SB Dunk Low reveals a heat map print when exposed to sunlight. 🤯☀️

They change color in the sun. Fam, that’s fly as hell. It’s like a mood ring on a shoe! The me living in 2005 just got hella excited about that.

I wanted this shoe before just for the sake of being fly. But now I’m just thinking about all the science experiments I can do with this joint and I just…yeah, lemme get these.